Rail of a drainage channel

ABSTRACT

Rails for drainage channels or manholes are known on which a cover of a channel or of a manhole can be placed. The rail has a horizontal bearing surface ( 10 ) extending in a longitudinal direction of the drainage channel or of the manhole and, substantially perpendicular to this bearing face, a rail edge ( 11 ) on the inner surface ( 12 ) of which the cover can be placed and on the outer surface ( 13 ) of which a surface covering can be applied. To increase the strength, it is proposed that the bearing surface ( 10 ) and/or the inner surface ( 12 ) and/or the outer surface ( 13 ) is/are provided with beads ( 20, 22, 23 ) over the entire length of the rail ( 1 ).

The invention relates to a rail for a drainage channel or a manholeaccording to the preamble of patent claim 1.

To stabilize their upper edges, surface drainage channels or manholesare often provided with rails or edge-protection devices, which serve toreceive cover rails for the channels or manholes. Since these rails playa not insignificant role in the load-bearing capacity of the channels ormanholes, there is often a very high cost of materials.

In addition, there is the problem with such devices that, after longyears of use, the gratings become stuck on the rails, so that it is nolonger possible to lift the gratings.

Thus, on the whole, the object of the present invention is to improveupon a rail of the type defined in the introduction, so that a greatstability is ensured, along with, at the same time, long-term usabilitywith the least possible cost and effort.

This object is achieved by a rail according to patent claim 1.

This object is achieved in particular by a rail for a drainage channelor for a manhole, on which a cover for a channel and/or a manhole can beplaced; this rail has a horizontal bearing surface running in alongitudinal direction of the drainage channel or the manhole and has arail edge essentially perpendicular to the former, so that the cover canbe placed on its inner surface and a surface covering can be attached toits outer surface, by providing beads over the entire length of the railof the bearing face and/or the inner face and/or the outer face.

One essential idea of the present invention thus consists of the factthat an increased load capacity is achieved by a special shaping of thematerial of which the rail is produced. It is possible in this way towork with a weaker material, which, first of all, reduces the productioncost of the overall arrangements (drainage channel/manhole) but,secondly, reduces the weight of the components, which is a majoradvantage in both shipping and installation.

The rail is preferably made of a steel plate material, in particular asteel plate material or a nonferrous plate material, for example,copper. The rail is preferably produced from a plate material in athickness of 0.8 to 2 mm, preferably 1 to 1.5 mm. This relatively thinmaterial has a surprisingly high strength due to the inventive shaping,thus saving on material and therefore costs and/or weight at the sametime.

It is also possible to produce the rail from plastic because in thiscase the beads ensure an increased load-bearing capacity.

The beads in the inner faces preferably run parallel to the longitudinaldirection of the channel and/or a main direction of the manhole. Thisyields an increased stiffness in this direction of particularly greatstress.

The beads on the outer surfaces preferably run perpendicular to thelongitudinal direction, i.e., vertically (after installation). Anincreased strength is therefore achieved in the transverse directionwithout any increase in the cost of materials.

The beads in the bearing surface may then run parallel to thelongitudinal direction, i.e., just like the beads in the inner surface.An increased stiffness in the longitudinal direction is thereforeachieved—as is the case with the beads on the inner faces.

The beads are preferably designed in an undulating shape, namely ashill-and-valley sections developing into one another as continuous wavetrains. This shape thus provides the maximum bead density and thereforealso the maximum stability.

Alternatively, the beads in the bearing surface may also be designed asan essentially continuous row of single beads. The stability of thebearing surfaces is not thereby increased substantially, but theconnection between the rail and the channel body and/or manhole body isimproved, so that sticking of the covers and/or gratings is effectivelyprevented at the same time.

In the region of the bearing surface, the rail has an interruptedsection, which is preferably positioned centrally, as seen in thelongitudinal direction, in particular in the case of extremely longrails for drainage channels, thus reducing the distortion of thearrangement when casting and shrinking the channel material and/ormanhole material.

The beads are preferably designed by roll forming in particular in thedesign of the rails as plate material. By means of this method ofproduction, the rails may be equipped with continuous lines of beads inthe longitudinal direction, so that it is also possible to fold theplate material in a single shaping operation to form the bearing facesand the rail edge.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are explained in greaterdetail below on the basis of drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective diagram of a first embodiment of theinvention,

FIG. 2 shows the embodiment of the invention according to FIG. 1,wherein the rail edge has been cut transversely,

FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the invention in a diagram like thataccording to FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention in a diagram like thataccording to FIG. 3, and

FIG. 5 shows a top view of the region V in FIG. 3.

In the following description, the same reference numerals are used forthe same parts and parts having the same effect.

As shown in FIG. 1, the rail 1 shown here comprises a bearing surface onwhich a channel cover or manhole cover, and/or manhole grating can beplaced in the usual manner. A rail edge 11, whose inner face 12 forms acontact surface for the cover to prevent lateral displacement, isconnected to this bearing surface 10. An outer surface 13 of the railedge 11 forms a flush seal with the body of the channel or the manhole,not shown here. On installation, the surfacing is continued up to thisouter face 13 and/or a corresponding surface covering is cast.

An inner section 15 extends downwards from the bearing surface 10,extending around the upper edge of the drainage channel (not shown here)and/or of the manhole together with the outer surface 13 of the railedge 11. Both the lower edge of the outer surface 13 and the lower edgeof the inner section 15 have an outer fold 14, and/or an inner fold 16,each being flanged inward in the direction of the upper edge of thechannel and/or manhole. The inner fold 16 is also provided with an innernotch 17, which is provided for engaging locking devices for a cover.

With the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, thebearing surface 10 is now equipped with continuous bearing beads 20extending over the entire length of the rail 1.

The shaping of the bearing beads 20 is designed so that a continuouswave pattern is formed in cross section. This yields, first of all, asubstantial stiffening of the bearing surface with respect to bendingperpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and on the other hand,yields a bearing surface for the cover, which establishes materialcontact in only a few linear regions. This ensures that sticking in thisregion is essentially impossible.

In all the embodiments shown here, the bearing surface of the rail edge11 is provided with outer surface beads 23 running perpendicularly overa substantial portion of this outer surface 13. Here again, thestructure is undulating (see FIG. 2 in particular), such that the hillsand valleys are essentially directly adjacent to and develop into oneanother. FIG. 2 also shows that the height of the outer surface beads 23extends to just in front of the upper edge of the rail edge 11 and belowthe bearing surface 10, so that an increased flexural stiffness isachieved with forces acting transversely to the longitudinal directionof the rail 11. Furthermore, adhesion between the rail and a castsurface covering is improved by these outer surface beads 23.

The embodiments in FIGS. 3 and 4 differ from those according to FIGS. 1and 2 in that the bearing beads are designed as circular embossings 20′(see FIG. 3) or, rather, as oval bearing beads 20″ (see FIG. 4). Thecontact surface between the bearing surface 10 and an applied cover isincreased in size, and nevertheless, sticking of the cover to thebearing face 10 is effectively prevented. The adhesion between the railand/or the region of the bearing surface 10 and the cast channel body,and/or manhole body is improved.

Due to the design of the beads 20, 20′, 20″ shown here, as well as 22and 23, the dimensions A and B of the rail 1, which are shown in FIG. 5,may be set essentially at will, so that predefined dimensions based onstandards can be set independently of the thickness of material of whichthe rail 1 is produced.

In addition, it must be pointed out that production of the rail 1 fromplate material can be accomplished in a particularly simple andnevertheless precise manner by roll forming. The beads 20 and 22 hereare formed continuously, while the outer surface beads 23 and thebearing beads 20′ and 20″ (see FIGS. 3 and 4) are formed in the sameprocedure as “individual” embossings. Therefore, the rails 1 may beformed continuously from plate strip material.

List of Reference Numerals  1 Rail 10 Bearing surface 11 Rail edge 12Inner surface 13 Outer surface 14 Outer fold 15 Inner section 16 Innerfold 17 Inner notch 18 Interrupting section 20, 20′, 20″ Bearing bead 22Inner surface bead 23 Outer surface bead

The invention claimed is:
 1. A rail for a drainage channel or a manholeon which a cover for a channel and/or a manhole can be placed, having ahorizontal bearing surface running in a longitudinal direction of thedrainage channel or the manhole and having a rail edge essentiallyperpendicular to the former, wherein the cover can be placed on an innersurface of the rail or the rail edge, and a surface covering can beapplied to an outer surface of the rail, characterized in that the outersurface is provided with beads over the entire length of the rail thatrun perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and thus vertically, andthe inner surface is provided with beads that run parallel to thelongitudinal direction.
 2. The rail according to claim 1, characterizedin that the rail is produced from a steel plate material.
 3. The railaccording to claim 1, characterized in that the bearing surface isprovided with beads that run parallel to the longitudinal direction. 4.The rail according to claim 1, characterized in that the beads aredesigned to develop into one another in an undulating shape.
 5. The railaccording to one of claim 1, characterized in that the beads in thebearing surface are designed as an essentially continuous row of singlebeads.
 6. The rail according to claim 1, characterized in that the railhas at least one interrupted section in the region of the bearingsurface positioned centrally in the longitudinal direction.
 7. The railaccording to claim 2, characterized in that the beads are formed by rollforming.
 8. The rail according to claim 2, characterized in that therail is produced from a steel plate material having a thickness of 0.8to 2 mm.
 9. The rail according to claim 8, characterized in that therail is produced from a steel plate material having a thickness of 1 to1.5 mm.
 10. The rail according to claim 4, characterized in that thebeads are designed as hill-and-valley sections in the form of acontinuous wave train.